Shakur Stevenson is a promotional free agent, and he’s had no problem finding suitors since his contract with Top Rank ended. Stevenson has met with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions.
Stevenson is said to be open to potentially signing with Floyd Mayweather’s Mayweather Promotions, and he will be in attendance for Jaron “Boots” Ennis’ Matchroom Boxing debut on Saturday against David Avanesyan.
Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn has arguably been the most vocal publicly about his desire to sign Stevenson. He’s spoken about the possibilities of inking the 27-year-old to a deal in the video below, and Stevenson will be Hearn’s guest at Ennis’ fight.
Hearn hasn’t minced words when discussing how he feels Stevenson has been undersupported and underpromoted during his career.
“I feel a bit for Shakur because he’s a one-man band,” Hearn told FightHype after the Ennis-Avanesyan press conference. “It’s Shakur against the world. But he has no promotional vehicle behind him. He has no promotional support. He has no mouthpiece. He has no spokesperson. It’s just him putting out fires and fighting wars on Twitter. Which actually you gotta move away from because it’s draining, and it’s also a waste of time. He needs someone who is going to fight those fights for him.”
Stevenson turned down a five-fight, $15 million deal to remain with Top Rank. Many, Stevenson and Hearn included, believe that Top Rank lost the motivation to push or promote the fighter once he showed a lack of interest in re-signing.
Hearn clarified that he greatly values potentially adding Stevenson to the Matchroom fold.
“As a fighter, I think he’s already Top-5 pound-for-pound fighter in the world,” Hearn said. “I think he’s an outstanding talent. I think he’s going to look even better against fighters who come to fight and have similar quality. I personally think the William Zepeda fight is a great fight for him. Obviously, he’s a DAZN fighter as well, that’s a fight we could look to make.”
Hearn called out Top Rank and ESPN’s reluctance to shine a light on how packed the Prudential Center was in Newark for Stevenson’s homecoming fight on Saturday. Instead, the focus seemed to be on a crowd that left early and the boos that could be heard during the broadcast. Hearn acknowledged the “boring” label Stevenson has received. However, he offered a few points in support and continued to show that he was potentially an advocate for the free-agent fighter.
“But also, there was a big crowd in Newark, and it was the biggest rating on ESPN this year,” Hearn pointed out. “People don’t like to champion that information too much, but obviously if he was with us, I’d be telling the world about that kind of thing, and I’m doing it for free right now, so congratulations. But, we’ll see what happens in the future. He’s coming on Saturday night.”
With Stevenson taking a meeting with Golden Boy and having a FaceTime conversation with Mayweather, his meeting with Matchroom this weekend could be a critical point in the impending free-agent decision.
If Stevenson doesn’t sign with Matchroom, it won’t be because Hearn failed to make his desire to bring the American fighter into the fold.
“We’d love to work for him,” Hearn said. “It has to work for Matchroom; it has to work for Shakur. But, like I said, he’s an outstanding young talent. If you look at our roster which is incredible, fighters like Bam Rodriguez, fighters like Jaron “Boots” Ennis. These are guys who are Top-5 pound-for-pound. I think he’s another one, so to bring him to the roster, I think he’d be a great catch.”
You can see the entire interview in the video below.
While the last few months have seemingly been frustrating for Stevenson as he has tried to prove himself, it could all be set to pay off if he can cash in on his next promotional deal.
